Alcohol

Personally, I have played poker completely sober, semi-under the influence and completely drunk. Personally, I have found that I play my best when I am sem-under the influence. By this I mean that I have had enough to relax me and loosen me up to the point where the stakes don't matter to me but not to the point where if I lose half my stack in a freeze out I am oblivious to the the affect alcohol may have had in determining a negative ev situation. My question is this this. Is it the same way with a majority of the cc community? We all know Scotty Nyguen was out of line in his Inaugural Chip Reese Trophy win, but at what point does it go beyond etiquette? At what point does it go beyond overall positive ev versus overall negative ev?

do it if it helps you, i play better on domes, so im with you, it melows you out so you get a emotional detachment, allowing you to make the correct stratgic play, not give off tells(live play). Also after about 8 hours of play, i start to get board, and just want to start shoving like a maniac, but being on domes, keeps me melow so i dont switch on the self destruct button.

Back in the 70's and 80's there was a pro who won one ME WSOP who was known for playing with a glass of whiskey by his side. Doyle Brunson said the fellow (Bill Smith) played too tight when sober but under the inflluence he was a dangerous opponent. He was dangerous enough to win it all in 1985.

I personally would never play while drinking. I would post on cards chat while drinking but that's another story.

When I'm on the live tables you will never see me without a drink. I tend to get wild drinks and make sure the table knows that I'm drinking. Quite often people will ask me what I'm drinking and i'll make sure I answer loud enough for the entire table to hear me...I want them thinking I'm just another drunk a-hole.

The reality is I time the alcohol intake to make sure I never reach more than a small buzz and I'm secretly pounding water when no one is looking. Unfortunately...sometimes I've gotta bail mid tourney and run to the bathroom. It takes a special kind of talent to hit the head and return before the dealer folds your next hand.

I have lost my entire BR because I CONTINUED drinking while playing online. I have stopped drinking at home because of this. My problem - as I have stated before - is that a drink makes a new man out of me, but that man wants to play poker and cant. But seriously, I play a live local tournament and will have a few beers, but pace myself and its no problem. On my computer, I pop one after the other, and soon start playing like an idiot. And I do stuff like play higher stakes to recap my losses, we all know how that will end. I do agree that a small buzz helps to make that risky play that we know we should cause we are playing to win, not just get ITM, but when stone cold sober, we sometimes play scared. But since I have repeatedly shown myself that I wont stop at 3 when online at home, I stopped drinking at home. I still run the danger of coming home after drinking and my PC is here, and that still happens ( I live in Munich, the Oktoberfest was expensive for me, as you dont come home from the fest just a bit buzzed.........groan) but I am actually not drinking at all at the moment, and it is only because of poker lol.

And lol at the running to the bathroom before you are dealt out. I have it pretty good in my local game as the bathroom is 30 feet from the tables. so I can usually make it. I also have an understanding with the barmaid there, and she brings me alcohol free beer on signal, so it looks like I am downing a lot of beer when in reality it is 2 or 3, and at the moment I only drink the alk-free stuff. I prefer it to water simply because a lot of players dont drink, and I want them to think I am.

Yeah everytime im pretty drunk i always feel that i will make all the right moves and play tightly and aggressively and follow strict brm and do some good table selection, but what usually happens is ill follow this for the first 20 minutes and start to think im a bit more invincible and start raising A10 UTG and chasing flush draws left right and centre, and it usually ends on calling an all in with top pair and losing! So now i dont play when im really drunk but i do play after a bottle of beer of two as i think i am a little more relaxed and can just stick to my game which i think is a fine thing to do.

I play way way better when i'm buzzed.The problem with me is that i'll only stay at the buzzed point for a little while before i down another 10 or so.Also i remember someone saying this i don't know who did."The good thing is i play great when i'm drinking an not so much when i'm not.The bad thing is i play great when i'm drinking an not so much when i'm not."No one wants to be the local drunk at the tables or at there own house...Maybe me but thats about it

I have lost hundreds of dollars while playing drunk online. I would not reccommend it at all.

i would have to agree with the original post that if you only have a certain amount of alcohol it improves my play BUT even just a little too much drastically disimproves my game

I think everyone will make their own minds up about this one lol some will agree some will disagree

personally I dont drink during play however if you know your level of drinking and can stop before you become effected by drink and just have enough to mellow out then it would be ok like I said each to their own on this one

inti

The optimal amount of alochol to consume before/while playing is the same amount you would insist your surgeon consume before operating on you or one of your loveed ones.

I can agree with dwolfg about a little drink helps to ease the tension when I playing. Mostly in tournaments though. This is where I feel the most stress and I have one drink to take the edge off. Any more then that and I will in the long run will become sleepy and not be able to finish the tournament or worse I will begin make some real stupid plays.

I don't need to drink to be more aggressive since I'm agressive enough playing sober.

During one of the the live games fletchdad mentioned I managed not to drink a sip - in an Irish bar, lol.

I enjoy some herbs from time to time while playing - doesn't seem to affect me too much, though.

That's another interesting topic

On the original one though, I'm with the people who play better after a drink or two. But after three it kind of starts going downhill

I think I play better after a few drinks only problem is I can't just have a few, normally drink on a Friday & Saturday night then it comes to a point at about 10.30 where I'm half cut & really fancy a game.

loads of times I wake up the next day and wonder where my roll went

pretty sure it's -EV to anyone who's halfway decent baby. Pretty sure Scotty plays as good or better not under the influence too baby.
pretty sure it'd be difficult to have an 'objetive' opinion of one's own play while under the influence (what may appear as 'playing better'.. might not be 'better' at all... baby)

Well I played while drinking in the last 2 CC games and have placed, I agree I think drinking takes an edge off, but too much and you will lose. I like to get drunk and play online, so what I do is play pokerstars 10 cent games, see this way I can play drunk and think im doyle without losing my bank roll. LOL I had a party poker last night and was really buzzed and played a 10 cent game and won 40 cents, go figure.

When I play live I get buzzed then just drink straight ice water. MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHERE THE BATHROOM IS. CHEERS.

I'm in this camp myself. But I really like it when the other players at the table are drinking... That seems to improve my game greatly!

I built my bankroll from freerolls and lost my first few small rolls because of alcohol. Id win some change or a couple bucks in a freeroll, take it to the $1 STTs, built up to around $20 3 or 4 times, then proceeded to give it all back while drinking. I try not to play at all anymore when Ive had some drinks and my bankroll has never really looked back.

I do drink a lot, but can't say it has ever been helpful to my poker game. :/

Have been playing for last year without any alcohol. Also gone as far as not playing when my work day has gone bad and haven't unwound yet. Found that works the best for me.

Oh its shocking, getting in from the bar in the evening and feeling the need to try and outplay those players in the MTTs well outside of my BRM.

Just enough is OK but one too many makes some people feel too invincible

balla.
I think it's different for everyone. I was drinking beers last week during the CC freeroll and ended up taking it down. I wasn't drunk, but I wouldn't have been drinking if I had to play a HU match against someone for $$$.

Just enough drinking to take the edge off will help most folks. My problem is once I start I can not seem to stop thus I never drink will playing.

As I write this I am pretty hungover. I just had a huge run on Rush Poker last night. This is my 2nd biggest cash game win and the other one was played while drunk, too. I think it helps allow me to play aggressive and play on instinct.

On the other hand, nobody wants to "need" to be loaded to play well.

ive noticed guys who are on alcohol wen playin poker tend to bluff at pots more...if your on a cash table with a good players on it more often than not u will get picked off bye guys who make a living looking out for drunk players

Its gonna be different for everyone. Some people can drink large amounts and handle it and do many things well, some people go from Jeckel to Hyde in a drink or 2. For me it is simply a bad idea to drink and play poker. Because I wont stop at 3. Its that plain. How can I be so sure of this? Because I constantly prove this theory again and again and again and............................................... ......

For me I like my beer and then some. Though lately I've been drinking low alcohol beer when playing. Then again last night I was pretty drunk and actually did well. Very controlled game even when it was 1 am and started in on the whiskey...

But there has also been times when I've been drunk and start acting overly aggressive and calling AI when I had no business doing so.

I have no good experience of playing poker and drinking! I started winning with my friends had tripled with q had begun to play! and end up losing everything and drunk!

The worst is when a really drunk player sucks out on you and then brags how good they are.

Personally, I like to have a couple of Crown and cokes during the early stages of a tourney. I get less anxious and slow myself down a bit when all the fishy's are shoving atc from any position (damn micro's). By the time my 'glow' licks in, the tourney's about an hour deep and I'm usually in my groove.

But I am always careful to cut myself off after 4 or 5. Anymore than that I just get drunk and foolish.

Generally I prefer to have at least a couple drinks throughout the course of a tournament or gaming session, but not to the point of being drunk, just enough to slightly lower my inhibitions and allow me to not be uptight.

Conversely, my best ever cash game session happened over the consumption of a 12 pack of corona netting me $1200 for the night at a .25/.50 table.

For many, many years it was beer and poker at my home games. (Lots of beer). I had an advantage over my buddies because I could handle it better than them. Playing online now, I rarely drink. I take notes on players I think are drunk, and look for them every time I play. Easy money, usually!

How often do players take notes on bad players and actually seek them out on a regular basis?